When Social Science Concepts Become Neutral Arbiters of Social Conflict: Reading the Ethiopian Federal Elections of 2005 through the Ethiopian Student Movement of the 1960s and 1970s

ABSTRACT:This article traces the story of how the intellectual culture and discourses that animated the Ethiopian student movement in the 1960s and 1970s have continued to impact political processes in the country in the generations since. More specifically, it looks at how the legacy of the Ethiopian student movement influenced events during the country’s momentous 2005 elections. The essay further poses the question of how one can characterize and understand the influence of the social sciences on actual social forces in a particular historical context.